A literal block buster with heart

Rating: 8/10 (18 July 2013)

I can summarize this movie in two words: Bad. Ass.
It is obviously inspired by the classic Japanese animated series "Neon Genesis Evangelion", which was itself influenced by earlier "kaiju movies" like Godzilla. It's about a portal to another dimension that opens up deep in the ocean. Big monsters (appropriately called "kaiju") come out of it and trash coastal cities. The world bands together and makes giant human-controlled robots to go fight them.
And that's really the whole plot.
But that's not the whole movie. There is also a real heart to the story. Several characters have survived trauma and use each other to work through the issues. The movie is genuinely multi-cultural without bothering to point that out. And in the end, it's a lesson about teamwork, also without directly pointing it out.
The monster fights redefine the word "epic". Director Guillermo del Toro has taken to heart the phrase "go big or go home". He doesn't go home. He has no problem destroying entire cities (but he does take care to evacuate them first. This is not a violent bloodbath movie).
Del Toro knows that these stories can get corny, so he preempts it by steering directly into cheesy humor. There's a super geeky subplot about two scientists competing to come up with the best solution, and Ron Perlman gives a great over-the-top performance of a black market trafficker in monster body parts. Everybody knows they're being ridiculous, so it works.
This is not a deep, socially relevant film about existential problems. It's not even all that original. I mean, it's a giant robot fight movie. But by zeroing in on what makes those movies work, Guillermo del Toro has managed to achieve something really rare - to make me feel like a kid again. It made me remember the old Godzilla movies; watching the larger-than-life battles between things that would make me feel so small... but knowing that with the right people around me, I could slay monsters.